Team
by starchain88
Summary: Many will die. But for the three of them, it will be different - after so much time, they will die together. /"a whisper of a team"/


_**Team**, by starchain_

_"Many will die. But for the three of them, it will be different - after so much time, they will die together."_

**Word Count: **2,704 words.  
**Characters/Pairings: **Team 7. No pairings.  
**Warnings: **swearing. character death. angst. some spoilers.

_

* * *

i. war_

There is a battle. It rages, as battles are wont to do. It makes the city burn. It conjures up blood and screams and death and tosses them about the city, leaving wreckage like a bull in a china shop.

It will tear Konoha apart.

Many will die. They will die fighting or fleeing, crying or laughing, screaming or praying. And then, for those three – little though they know it, for them, it is the last time.

Those three will die together.

* * *

_ii. discoveries_

All ninjas know the horror of battle, but few ever learn the insanity of war. It is one thing to stare into the eyes of one you have defeated with death in your hands, but to know how long you have fought each other, and in that sense, to have some kind of comradeship – to know so well the style and viciousness and grace of your opponent – and at the end of everything, to know that you have won a victory for something _good_ –

But to have those eyes be a stranger's?

The ninjas of Konoha will learn of this cruel truth. They will learn the futility of it all – to spill that stranger's blood and know that there are a hundred others to take his place, some strong, some weak, all soon to die, all someday forgotten, none ever known by you – and that to each one of those others, you are the same.

Some will lose their faith in justice. The others – well, they will have to try very hard not to.

But they will all learn also of something better – of something pure, and beautiful, and almost as sad. Even the densest among them will see it – it is impossible to miss, almost tangible as it is, twined between the three twisting figures that fight above, on a small stone plateau in the outskirts, surrounded by fire, just barely removed from the chaos.

* * *

_iii. whirl_

It is almost as though they are dancing. Though they have never come close to encountering each other in this way before, they move so neatly in relation to one another, it is as though this is more ballet than conflict – but the blood on their bodies and weapons reminds any onlooker of the truth.

They are not a team.

Later, some will question the meaning of their clash – there were, after all, only two sides, and not three. How could each fight both others with equal fervor? Even beyond being former teammates, at least two of them would be attacking at least one ally, would they not?

But what these onlookers fail to understand is that, for those three, loyalties mean nothing. Villages, boundaries, orders, promises – even the dreams, the infatuation, and the vengeance that each has nursed deep within for so long – all means nothing. After all, it is not three separate ones, but one made up of three – and nothing individual can hold them now. Now, there exists only an eternity of hellos and goodbyes and fear and friendship and betrayal and pain and longing and anger and hatred and halflove and pure, unbreakable _togetherness_ – that which made them more than they had ever hoped to be. That which kept them from ever being apart, which impossible miles and mountain ranges and armies look piddling, as far as obstacles go.

* * *

_iv. encounter_

Those who saw it begin think they might understand, and they are not quite wrong.

Not one of the three had been still until then: when the blond boy, already badly wounded but _still fighting, dammit,_ spins to tear another foe away from his home, only to see the one person who means even more than home does, standing there among the flames. He stumbles and winces around his injuries, but the expression on his face indicates that all sensory input has left him but for the image of the face in front of him.

That face, of course, hurts more than anything.

(It is impossible to hear over the unending roar, but if one looked carefully, one could read the lips that so slowly whispered the name: )

_sasuke_

The black-haired boy, of course, does not speak. More telling, as always, are his eyes. In this, they do not waver: crimson red, but burning for more than that, fixed upon the face of his _friendfoeteammatebrother_ – whatever they are to each other.

Neither moves, and for seconds that become eternities in the sped-up timeflow that comes with battle, they only stare into each other's eyes, blank-faced and perfectly still.

Until the blond boy screams and launches his fist at the other's throat. The red-eyed one spins out of the way, his shadow dramatic against the inferno, and in an instant has his sword whipping toward his opponent's head. From there they are whirling-striking-yelling-bleeding-attacking in a little self-contained hurricane.

This is their first meeting in many years.

This also, of course, is the first time they have tried to kill each other. But no one knows.

* * *

_v. component_

The girl's entry is less dramatic; it is as though she has stumbled upon them entirely by accident. It seems she has been wandering for a long time. Her eyes are already wet; but when she sees _his_ eyes, bloody red eyes, all of her medical supplies spill out of her arms, roll off the rocky precipice, and are consumed by the fire.

She will not be healing after this.

Her mouth falls open, and perhaps she makes a sound, for the other two bring their tempest screeching to a halt. The boys seem guilty, as though they have been misbehaving and she is their mother, but the look of despair on her face makes her look as young as they do.

They all stare. For one last moment, they are only awkward children, unsure of what to say to one another.

But they are not children anymore, and the moment passes.

* * *

_vi. discussion_

After the battle has ended, one lone remaining Akatsuki member is arrested. He is sentenced to death. In an effort to have his sentence reduced, he offers his observations of one Uchiha Sasuke, who he observed, he stated, "because my late partner cared about him, and pretty much nobody else, eh."

The prisoner reports that he witnessed the confrontation that allegedly took place before the very controversial deaths of the members of Team 7. He offers them as testimony. He could not hear what the teenagers said, but, being practiced in the arts of stealth and spying, he read their lips.

_//s sasuke-kun//_

_//sakura-chan_

_sakura leave  
_

_i won't let you two kill each other not you_

_sakura you don't_

_don't start after all this time you don't think we can be t together again that we we _

_after all that's happened fat chance this bastard will ever_

_that bastard is sasuke_

_does that matter now_

_you are both foolish it isn't about me it isn't about you it isn't about teams don't you realize that by now_

_sasuke-kun_

_then what is it about bastard is it about revenge don't tell me that still matters to you//_

_//you idiot you know nothing absolutely nothing don't try to_

_no one killed itachi but you you killed him and you'll try to avenge him by tearing my village apart_

_naruto n no_

_sakura-chan he killed tsunade and kakashi and neji and so many people don't you dare forgive him_

_that's not why you hate me naruto_

_shut the fuck up_

_he doesn't hate _

_you hate me naruto because i shattered your comfortable world i showed you that_

_SHUT THE FUCK UP_

_that you can't protect those you love i had to learn it as do you we all learn it_

_you and you alone murdered half the village your brother gave his life up to protect _

_YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING_

_do you call that revenge_

_this village doesn't love you naruto are you so stupid as to believe they did_

_please stop_

_love me or hate me they didn't deserve to DIE_

_they did they're as blind as you are_

_then why haven't you killed me yet_

_naruto_

_why didn't you kill me back then_

_naruto stop_

_why didn't you kill sakura-chan _

_please please_

_if no one matters to you anymore_

_NARUTO_

_WHY HAVEN'T YOU KILLED US_

_naruto please_

_sakura-chan let me GO_

_naruto don't ask vain questions//_

_//sasuke-kun the village would have pardoned you they would_

_no they wouldn't i'm a criminal to them_

_b but you were one of their own one of our own y you were a neighbor and classmate and f fighter_

_meaningless_

_b but sasuke-kun you were ours you were our teammate_

_MEANINGLESS_

_sasuke shut up_

_sasuke-kun if it were meaningless w well we would not be alive would we_

_stop talking_

_you would have killed us because after all we know you best_

_sakura _

_DON'T TOUCH HER YOU ASSHOLE_

_if you believed you were so important you are deluded_

_am i//_

_//let her GO_

_naruto_

_sasuke why are you here you've had your revenge many times over just why the hell are you HERE//_

_//do you have an answer bastard//_

_//well do you//_

_//w wait sasuke-kun don't leave_

_sakura-chan let the bastard go he's forgotten what teammate means_

_naruto you've forgotten too don't you realize you've betrayed the team as well_

_what sakura-chan what do you_

_don't play dumb after sai died you all but gave up you just went and left me to pick up the pieces_

_sakura-chan_

_you may not have betrayed the village formally but you betrayed me and after i cared so much about you_

_sakura-chan_

_after all this time_

_sakura-chan_

_you don't have any more right to touch her than i do moron_

_sakura-chan please don't cry sakura-chan i'm i'm sorry _

_no you aren't it's been two years naruto sorry isn't worth shit_

_sakura-chan i_

_you never came back did you_

_only because you didn't want me to you fucking hated me don't lie_

_naruto_

_so what team is it that the two of you are begging me to return to? there is no team there never was_

_sasuke-kun_

_sakura you asked to be reassigned you cry now but you gave up years ago_

_sasuke-kun//_

_//sakura-chan when? _

_after all your friends died when the two of you were more alone than ever or so you say_

_s sasuke-kun please_

_she told the hokage that it wasn't you naruto but that she believed team 7 had been destroyed_

_n naruto no it's not w what you're thinking_

_please stop sakura-chan_

_n naruto it wasn't because it well i was so alone_

_please just stop//_

_//do the two of you see now you're hypocrites as much as i am for trumpeting about teams for so long_

_s sasuke-kun _

_it was all lies maybe there was childish pretense once but the word team implies forever that didn't exist_

_b but_

_if you were really interested in being a team again you wouldn't have let this happen_

_sasuke_

_but you're just desperate to relive a memory of a falsehood that will never come back_

_sasuke-kun_

_we ended it as much as the years did//_

_//m maybe it was all lies for you two but it wasn't for me_

_n naruto_

_sakura- chan sasuke you two have been like like my family i i couldn't have made it this far without you_

_you moron_

_you were the ones who accepted me and whatever you two have done_

_naruto_

_i never forgot that_

_even now you think that means something?_

_yeah even now don't you guys feel it even now_

_naruto stop dithering_

_even now i can feel it you guys are my heart, these past years have been hell alone_

_naruto what are you_

_alone without my team, my friends, my only family_

_naruto don't_

_and it hurts because i hate the both of you_

_naruto STOP_

_but even after everything i think i'd die if_

_shut UP moron_

_in this weird way the both of you i lo_

_NARUTO//_

The informant's report ends there, as his quarry attacked the other boy and the girl balled her fists up in his cloak and no other words were exchanged.

The prisoner's testimony was reviewed. His sentence was not lifted.

* * *

_vii. colors_

Their fight, observers say, was beautiful. Chakra leaking – normal chakra, Uchiha chakra, sage chakra, poisonous Kyuubi chakra – so thick it colored the air, so that it looked as though they were struggling in the middle of an ethereal rainbow cloud, slashed through with black smoke and burning fire. Interspersed also were their own colors – black, orange, yellow, pink, red, white – streaks of angry bodies accented by the glimmer of tears on cheeks.

* * *

_viii. complete_

The crescendo and finale of their battle everyone saw, but on this no one is certain. A jutsu gone wrong? A misplaced exploding tag? Simply too much bad chakra in one place?

What they saw was this: a burst of white light illuminated the small plateau, reducing the three fighters into three motionless silhouettes – or more correctly, one, because for this one final instant, they were all connected.

Sasuke's arm was outstretched, pointed in the form of the _Chidori_, but Naruto's hand is fastened immovably around his wrist. Naruto's other arm was held by Sakura, who has five fingers gripping his jacket and _pulling_ and five fingers reaching toward Sasuke and just barely brushing his. They seemed to form a triangle, all perfectly unmoving, all gazing into a common point within each other's eyes.

This was what the onlookers saw. No one knows what passed between them, and no one knows what happened next.

The blinding white light became scorching heat, and reduced Team 7 into ash.

* * *

_ix. autopsy_

"Why did it happen?"

"They were all so powerful, so gifted…"

"I never thought it would end like this."

"Did you know them when they were kids?"

"Yeah, I saw them around. They were quite a team, lemme tell ya."

"Were they?"

"Yeah. Made a big fuss when they first took the Chuunin exams. The boys, yeah, but even the girl – everybody knew they were something special."

"I guess the Uchiha thing tore them all apart, though."

"I dunno about that. Maybe the Uchiha was gone, and maybe the other two couldn't stand each other anymore. But the blond kid, he was constantly out searching for the Uchiha, and when he wasn't, you could find him spying on the girl, making sure she was all right, you know. And the girl never let anyone say a word against either of them – not even stuff that was true, like calling the Uchiha a traitor or saying the blond goofed around too much. Defended the both of them till the end."

"And the Uchiha?"

"Well, he didn't kill them, did he?"

"…"

"At least… at the very least… they could die together."

* * *

_x. eulogy_

They couldn't be buried. There were no bodies.

But over time, stories collected. The transcript of their last conversation, but more than that: idle chatter about their pasts. How they'd been as children. How they'd been as adults. How they would have been if they had lived. Their fights, their failures. Their victories.

But most importantly, their relationships with each other. How they had started so rockily. How they came to fight like a flawless single entity. How the force of their separations shook the whole village. How it became increasingly evident that no matter the distance they put between each other, theirs were bonds that stretchedstretchedstretched and never broke.

No memoirs were written for them; no statues erected, not to the last Uchiha, not to Naruto, who brought the Kyuubi down with him, certainly not to a gifted but average healer.

But a whisper was started; a whisper that didn't die, but grew. Whispers that fathers told their children, that teachers told their students, that eventually Hokages would tell their soldiers. A whisper of "the highest virtues befitting a ninja of Konoha" – of loyalty, determination, a long memory, devotion, and the courage to _die together_. A whisper of a bond that never broke, or so people believe.

Simply, a whisper of a team.

* * *

**A/N: **Please review, this was very hard to write. Are they consistent? Are they in character? Does the story make sense? Do you... know what's going on? XD

Please review, love and hatred both accepted!


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